500 episodes

Afropop worldwide is your source for music and stories from the African planet. We explore the the world through sound, from the ancient past to the cutting edge present, combining music, history, and culture. Distributed by PRI.

Afropop Worldwide Afropop Worldwide

    • Music
    • 3.7 • 3 Ratings

Afropop worldwide is your source for music and stories from the African planet. We explore the the world through sound, from the ancient past to the cutting edge present, combining music, history, and culture. Distributed by PRI.

    Women's History Month: Umm Kulthum - The Voice of Egypt

    Women's History Month: Umm Kulthum - The Voice of Egypt

    Umm Kulthum has been called the greatest singer in the Arabic speaking world in the 20th century. Born in 1904 the humble daughter of an Egyptian village imam, she went on to become a glamorous Cairo celebrity in her 20s, and soon after that, a cultural icon whose monthly live radio broadcasts brought much of Egypt to a standstill. She turned high poetry into popular culture. She extended musical forms with her virtuoso, extended vocal improvisations. Combining historical, religious, literary and musical passions, she inspired an enduring sense of national pride and left a legacy for the ages. Millions gathered for her 1975 funeral. With Umm Kulthum biographer Virginia Danielson as guide and guest, this program explores the life and music of a musical legend. Produced by Banning Eyre.

    APWW #465

    • 59 min
    Women's History Month: Afropop Women Warriors

    Women's History Month: Afropop Women Warriors

    This program focuses on four female artists whose music is full of challenging messages for a challenged world. Climate change, womens’ empowerment, police brutality, official corruption… All that and more in new work from Angelique Kidjo, Dobet Gnaore, Fatoumata Diaouara and Shungudzo, plus a dive into Octavia Butler’s prescient cautionary tales with Toshi Reagon. Produced by Banning Eyre.

    APWW #827

    • 59 min
    Planet Afropop - Singeli Jumps and Rumba Swings in Tanzania!

    Planet Afropop - Singeli Jumps and Rumba Swings in Tanzania!

    Afropop Worldwide took 24 adventurous listeners to Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania, and Zanzibar in February. In this episode, Dar music veteran and aficionado John Kitime takes us through highlights, including the frenetic and risqué singeli music-and-dance craze currently electrifying the country. We also get Kitime's unique insider perspective, and some deep history, on Swahili rumba, still going strong in Dar Es Salaam nightclubs.

    PA #014

    • 54 min
    Women's History Month: Four Women of the West

    Women's History Month: Four Women of the West

    In West Africa, women are on the cutting edge of musical and cultural progress. This program looks at four singer/composers with roots in tradition and unique ideas about how to keep them current in the fast-changing milieu of today’s African music. Mali’s Fatoumata Diawara keeps her focus on messages, mixing traditional sounds and rock idioms to reach young audiences. Senegal’s Aida Samb is finding new avenues for that country’s trademark mbalax sound, including collaborations with Afrobeats stars like Wizkid. Elida Almeida of Cape Verde has emerged as a freewheeling composer, able to draw on whatever influences she likes, and it’s working for fans of all generations. And Benin’s Angelique Kidjo, never one to sit back on her many successes, has covered Talking Heads’ 1980 album Remain in Light, in its entirety, re-Africanizing a rock classic for a new time. We’ll speak with all four artists, and hear their latest music. Produced by Banning Eyre

    • 59 min
    Women's History Month: Cheikha Rimitti, Rebel Queen of Algerian Music

    Women's History Month: Cheikha Rimitti, Rebel Queen of Algerian Music

    Cheikha Rimitti was certainly a queen. For some, she was the queen of raï (pronounced RYE), which means “opinion" in Arabic. For others, she was the queen of freedom, an Algerian Statue of Liberty wielding the fire of independence, as she sang daringly and frankly about love, sexuality, poverty, drinking and oppression. She defied taboos and her music was often banned. She used to say that "misfortune was her teacher” but she became an international star who died at 86, two days after a sold-out show! However, it might be too simple to portray Rimitti only in this iconic role. She was even more than a musical and cultural queen, and she still lives on in many hearts. Rimitti would have been 100 in 2023 - and yet the Algerian diva is still praised and remixed by a young new generation of artists. In this episode, we’ll journey through Rimitti’s rocky life and we’ll meet her musical progeny. Produced by Elodie Maillot.

    APWW #870

    • 59 min
    Planet Afropop - South Africa in the Green Room: Bongeziwe and Bakithi

    Planet Afropop - South Africa in the Green Room: Bongeziwe and Bakithi

    Bongeziwe Mabandla is a maverick South African singer-songwriter whose music draws on many of his country’s rich styles, but cannot be reduced to any of them. Along with his Mozambican producer Tiago Correira Paulo, he has developed a unique, keyboard-driven sound with deep, meditative textures. Planet Afropop’s Mukwae Wabei Siyolwe calls it “music you can dance to, pray to, cry to, and celebrate to.” In this episode Mukwae speaks with Bongeziwe and Tiago as they are about to embark on a world tour. The episode concludes with Graceland bassman Bakithi Kumalo, talking and playing from his home studio in advance of his participation in Camp Afropop in May 2024.

    PA #013

    • 44 min

Customer Reviews

3.7 out of 5
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